Shelf Life: Media from Then and Now for Readers in the Sacramento Region
Jan 03, 2017 11:43AM ● By Sharon Penny
ALBUMS
THEN
The Book of Souls—Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden’s music isn’t just “metal.” At its best, it’s epic storytelling and a face-melting twin guitar attack and Bruce Dickinson wailing like a glorious human air raid siren. Twenty-fifteen’s Book of Souls brings all of that perfect alchemy to bear in a glorious return to form. Folks: They’ve been doing this for 40 years. It’s insane.
NOW
Hardwired…To Self-Destruct—Metallica
If you were one of those weirdos who stopped listening to Metallica after they cut their hair, then you might be inclined to return to the fold with this new album. Their hair’s still short but the thrash has returned; those fast driving riffs are piled on thick and heavy and you may even occasionally forget that they’re not angry 20-year-olds anymore.
BOOKS
THEN
Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite
If Anne Rice was The Cure, then Poppy Z. Brite was Bauhaus. Lost Souls put forth the idea that vampires could wear T-shirts and boots and listen to ’80s Goth and behave like, well, people, rather than harpsichord-playing gentlemen with velvet jackets and frilly cuffs. Not that there’s anything wrong with the latter…
NOW
Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis by Anne Rice
After the loss of her beloved husband and over a decade of novels that, let’s be honest, tended toward the literary wilderness, Anne Rice returns to the beloved well of The Vampire Chronicles and The Vampire Lestat.
DVDs
THEN
Dark Places
Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn is the queen of the third-act plot twist, and the movie adaptation of her 2009 novel Dark Places—starring Charlize Theron and Christina Hendricks—will not disappoint with this intricately plotted murder mystery.
NOW
The Girl on the Train
Armchair detectiving is my specialty; not only am I excellent at sitting, I’m pretty good at solving fictional murders. Based on the best-selling novel by Paula Hawkins and starring Emily Blunt and Justin Theroux, The Girl on The Train is a great crime thriller that’s a perfect excuse for you to flex your armchair-sleuthing muscle.